Malta Will Pass FATF Test Barring Ulterior Political Motives, Finance Minister Says
Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has said that Malta’s potential greylisting by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) could only be driven by political motives since the country has done enough to pass its technical evaluation.
The minister was reacting to reports that the FATF’s International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) yesterday failed to reach a unanimous decision on whether to recommend that Malta be greylisted.
A final decision will be taken at the FATF plenary session on 23rd June.
The ICRG is composed of FATF evaluators, who yesterday met to vote on whether or not to recommend greylisting.
Malta was hoping to be given the all-clear yesterday however Lovin Malta understands that assessors from three countries, namely the USA, UK and Germany, insisted on taking a position against Malta.
While the USA’s weight in the FATF cannot be underestimated, a source familiar with the proceedings said that on the positive side, many countries had chosen to support Malta.
In a Facebook post this afternoon, Caruana reiterated what he said some weeks ago, that Malta had obtained a satisfactory result in all areas of the Moneyval assessment.
“If we use the simple logic that a country passes the assessment on the basis of this exercise, then Malta should pass,” the minister said.
“However if this technical process is subverted by political motives, then there is no telling what the result will be. If this happens, it would not be fair on all the serious work done over the last year and a half. Neither would it be fair on the Maltese people.”
Despite Malta’s small size, Caruana concluded, it remained a sovereign nation with its own identity and culture.
“In the same way that other countries look out for their own interests, we too are taking all the necessary measures to safeguard the interest of our country and our people,” Caruana said.
What do you make of the minister’s statement?
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